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• News Archive: September 2009

News Archive: September 2009

The views represented in these articles do not necessarily represent the views of the editor, the Privacy Act Program, or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

THE SCOOP for September 30, 2009

• Are You Managing Your Electronic Documents? Why Not?
  CMS Wire - September 24, 2009
  "Confirming the recent Forrester Report that showed a widespread lack of management of electronic records, AIIM ... has just published a similar report that shows 26% of organizations admitting that they have no electronic records management policy."

• Cloud Computing Gains Momentum but Security and Privacy Issues Persist
  Government Technology - September 25, 2009
  "In all arrangements, the clients' data wind up in someone else's hands somewhere along the way. For government, citizens' data is sacred, as is data involving internal business processes. Even when a third-party provider is reputable, it's understandable to experience a tinge of anxiety."

• Corporations can claim personal privacy interest
  Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press - September 25, 2009
  "At issue was FOIA's Exemption 7(C), the law enforcement exemption, which prevents the release of records compiled for law enforcement purposes that could be considered an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy."

• The E-Memory Revolution
  Library Journal - September 15, 2009
  "The rise of digital records of daily life means unmatched access to our pasts, presenting both challenge and opportunity to libraries."

• Experts craft blueprint for paradigm shift in cybersecurity
  Government Computer News - September 23, 2009
  "By improving hardware security, removing financial incentives for the bad guys and creating more adaptive attack surfaces, we could shift the advantage in favor of the good guys, the experts concluded."

• Federal, State Regs Push Email Server Archiving Adoption
  TMCNet - September 24, 2009
  "[M]ore than one-fourth of organizations have not yet established an email retention policy, despite the growing number of statutory requirements and legal obligations to preserve business records, including those stored in email."

• Identity theft 101: what is insurance fraud?
  Washington Examiner - September 8, 2009
  "Identity theft involving insurance fraud occurs when an identity thief obtains insurance by using personally identifiable information belonging to an identity theft victim."

• Most Interesting Start-up of the Year? The Federal Government
  Huffington Post - September 23, 2009
  "Instead of merely using web technologies to promote the present administration's agenda, a new community of policy-makers has worked to make the web and social technologies a fundamental part of their way of doing business..."

• Newly Declassified Files Detail Massive FBI Data-Mining Project
  Wired - September 23, 2009
  "A fast-growing FBI data-mining system billed as a tool for hunting terrorists is being used in hacker and domestic criminal investigations, and now contains tens of thousands of records from private corporate databases, including car-rental companies, large hotel chains and at least one national department store..."

• USA.gov's successful shift to cloud computing could become the model
  NextGov - September 29, 2009
  "The transition of the federal Web portal USA.gov to the cloud, where a vendor maintains the infrastructure and applications, has been successful enough that the General Services Administration is considering the same approach for sites such as Data.gov..."

• The 'Web Squared' Era
  Forbes - September 24, 2009
  "[C]ollective intelligence applications are increasingly driven by cascades of sensor data being thrown off by devices, often without explicit human intervention. Today's smartphones contain microphones and cameras, as well as motion, proximity, location, and direction sensors. They have their own eyes, ears, and sense of touch."

• The World Wide Web Consortium weighs in on government transparency
  MIT News - September 24, 2009
  "The eGovernment group has about 200 participants representing roughly a dozen U.S. federal agencies, governments in South America, Africa, Europe, and Oceania, international development organizations, and major manufacturers of computer software and hardware."

THE SCOOP for September 23, 2009

• Business Intelligence, the Cloud and the Government
  BeyeNetwork - September 22, 2009
  "For the public sector, especially the Federal government, there are a number of important considerations to take into account. First and foremost, there is still a major barrier for program executives to overcome: 'fear of losing control of their infrastructure.'"

• A Data Deluge Swamps Science Historians
  Wall Street Journal - August 28, 2009
  "Scientists who collaborate via email, Google, YouTube, Flickr and Facebook are leaving fewer paper trails, while the information technologies that do document their accomplishments can be incomprehensible to other researchers and historians trying to read them."

• Database Archiving Basics
  Information Management - September 22, 2009
  "The need for this function has surfaced at most IT organizations, and the problems it addresses are only getting bigger and bigger. These problems include challenges with data retention requirements, application renovations and e-discovery."

• DHS mandates department-wide telework, COOP review this week
  Federal News Radio - September 21, 2009
  "The Undersecretary of Management for one of the largest Federal departments is ordering agencies to test teleworkers' abilities to work away from the office and review other continuity-of-operations planning all this week."

• Enterprise Content Management: A Foundation for Useful Information
  Public CIO - September 22, 2009
  "At its most fundamental level, government is in the business of information. Yet it's one thing to collect information, and quite another to make it useful. As simple and humble as it sounds, "usefulness" of information and systems has emerged as the gold standard."

• Identity theft 101: what is impersonation or character id theft?
  Washington Examiner - August 31, 2009
  "Impersonation or character id theft occurs when a criminal poses as another person to aid, abet or commit a crime or to elude law enforcement. Victims of this type of identity theft may be arrested or left with a criminal record or arrest warrant resulting from criminal actions of an identity thief."

• Is personal eMail subject to open-records law?
  eSchool News - September 14, 2009
  "The court has agreed to hear a case that will determine whether the public's right to know what its government is doing extends to reading personal eMails of teachers sent while at work--and legal experts say the employees in question, and all public school employees in general, might not have a reasonable expectation of privacy."

• Monumental task
  Federal Computer Week - September 11, 2009
  "The second half of the National Archives and Records Administration's name suggests an even bigger challenge than keeping aging official parchments from rotting away into oblivion."

• Standards body issues draft advisory on maintaining open government data
  Government Computer News - September 18, 2009
  "While building out publicly facing data repositories, government agencies should cleanly separate the user interface layer from the data being presented, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) advises in a draft report on maintaining open government data."

• Use The Cloud To Protect Email
  Processor - September 11, 2009
  "Perhaps the most overused, ill-defined, and oft-misunderstood technology term of the past year is cloud computing. In fact, according to Gartner's seminal model for categorizing new technologies, cloud computing now sits at the apex of the Hype Cycle—the precarious 'Peak of Inflated Expectations.'"

• White House Defends Archiving Comments from Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter Sites
  CNSNews - September 22, 2009
  "The Obama administration said that archiving citizen postings on White House social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, is just a matter of following the law and dismissed any assertions that there might be something "sinister" about collecting such information."

THE SCOOP for September 16, 2009

• Agencies may be unable to meet request for downloadable data
  NextGov - September 11, 2009
  "'There's no data associated with [a PDF]. It's not machine-readable; the only intelligible way to retrieve data from the system, is you need that system,' said Kevin Novak, co-chairman of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) eGovernment Interest Group..."

• California's New Electronic Discovery Law Contains Important Difference From Federal Law
  Expert Click - August 28, 2009
  "[T]he new California law on ESI provides that a responding party can object to an ESI discovery request on the basis that the data is inaccessible, and therefore requires undue burden or expense. If an objection is filed, the requesting party can file a motion to compel. However, the burden to prove inaccessibility remains with the responding party."

• Digital Dilemma
  The Hospitalist - September 2009
  "Hospitals have struggled for more than a decade with the EHR question, debating whether they should—not to mention how they would—create a computerized system to input patient records into a database that is accessible in real time to hospitalists, nurses, primary-care physicians, insurers, and so on."

• Does DNA database unfairly brand the innocent?
  San Francisco Chronicle - September 13, 2009
  "[A]bout 800,000 innocent people are on the database, raising fears of 'discrimination, breach of genetic privacy, stigmatization - there's a whole host of issues here.'"

• E-government success depends on external expertise
  ComputerWeekly - September 15, 2009
  "David Osimo, director of Tech4i2, said many of the present "Gov 2.0" projects gaining popularity were started by non-government people. "Government projects need to show that they protect people's privacy and security," he said, speaking at the European Network and Information Security Agency (Enisa) summer school."

• Federal panel okays EHR security, privacy standards
  Government Health IT - September 15, 2009
  "The Health IT Standards Committee today endorsed a set of security and privacy standards for electronic health record systems that it said would get progressively tougher without holding back wider health information sharing."

• Government Web sites kept alive at Cyber Cemetery
  federalnewsradio - September 13, 2009
  "It was a historian's nightmare. During the change from the Clinton to the Bush administration, Web sites affiliated with the Clinton White House went dark, and an unknown number of online documents and files were forever lost."

• GSA, OMB To Unveil Cloud Computing Site
  National Journal - September 14, 2009
  "The General Services Administration and White House Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday will unveil a federal cloud computing initiative, the centerpiece of which will be a new Web site, Apps.gov -- an online storefront for agencies to acquire and purchase cloud computing services in an efficient, effective way."

• How Web 2.0 has changed the business of government
  Federal News Radio - September 15, 2009
  "[I]t's a very exciting time for both the government and the public, because 2.0 isn't simply about technology. It's about making government a platform and making data available for public use, rather than having government act as a simple service provider."

• Identity theft 101: what is government benefits fraud?
  Washington Examiner - August 27, 2009
  "A Social Security Number (SSN), Social Security Card or Medicare Card is required to apply for government benefits. Consequently,this type of identity fraud is related to Government Identification Fraud, which includes the use of a victim's SSN and the forgery of related identification cards."

• NARA digs out of digital avalanche
  Federal Computer Week - September 11, 2009
  "With much of the business of government conducted online, NARA must transform itself by developing new tools, techniques and policies for ensuring that electronic records are searchable and accessible, not just now but for years to come."

• NARA's top 10 management challenges
  Federal Computer Week - September 11, 2009
  "In its most recent semiannual report to Congress covering October 2008 to March 2009, the National Archives and Records Administration's Office of Inspector General listed what it considers the 10 most significant challenges that the agency faces.

THE SCOOP for September 9, 2009

• Administration Seeks to Keep Terror Watch-List Data Secret
  Washington Post - September 6, 2009
  "Intelligence officials in the administration are pressing for legislation that would exempt "terrorist identity information" from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act."

• Administration wants help archiving its Facebook, Twitter content
  Federal Computer Week - September 2, 2009
  "The Executive Office of the President (EOP) plans to hire a company to help archive the ever-expanding amount of data that qualifies as presidential records that the office publishes on publicly accessible Web sites and social networking sites, according to a recently published solicitation notice."

• Archives reports progress on road to digital ERA
  Federal News Radio - September 3, 2009
  "Its been four years since the National Archives and Records Administration first began building ERA, the Electronic Records Archive. The program is designed to digitize existing government paper records and to make electronic archives items available digitally."

• Congress weighs landmark change in Web ad privacy
  business insider - September 7, 2009
  "While Congress has waded into Internet privacy issues before, this measure could break new ground, as the first major attempt to regulate a nascent but fast-growing industry that represents the future of advertising."

• Identity theft 101: what is employment fraud?
  Washington Examiner - August 10, 2009
  "Employment fraud involving identity theft occurs when a person, an identity thief, obtains employment by using a stolen or synthesized (made up) social security number (SSN)."

• Obama yields on most White House visitor logs
  MSNBC - September 4, 2009
  "The White House called the release of information "voluntary," continuing to argue the Bush administration's position that full disclosure is not required by the Freedom of Information Act."

• The Promise and the Peril of Web 2.0
  TechNewsWorld - September 1, 2009
  "The savvy business understands the value associated with blogging, podcasting, social networking, user-generated videos, file-sharing, wikis and other interactive technologies. What's even more important, though, is understanding how to control the attendant risks."

• Records management and privacy: Conflict or convergence?
  SC Magazine - September 8, 2009
  "What does privacy have to do with records management? A lot. On the surface, though records management and privacy appear to diverge, in reality they are both concerned with the proper and compliant management of information (and records)."

• Safeguarding History
  Washington Post - September 6, 2009
  "Justice Souter agreed last month to donate his personal and professional papers to the New Hampshire Historical Society in his home state. But he ordered that they be off-limits to the public, including academic researchers, historians and journalists, for 50 years from the date of his retirement -- or until 2059."

• States step up to the electronic challenge
  KM World - August 28, 2009
  "When NASCIO, the organization of state chief information officers, asked members to list their top 10 priorities for 2009, electronic records management and e-discovery ranked fifth on their list

THE SCOOP for September 2, 2009

• AHIMA Slams Privacy Rules
  ARMA Washington Policy Brief - September 2009
  "New privacy protection laws included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) make even a brief unauthorized look at medical records a federal offense that can mean large monetary fines both for individuals and healthcare facilities, argues the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA)."

• Automated System Backfires On Social Security Administration
  InformationWeek - August 12, 2009
  "The government is permitted by law to withhold benefits to fugitive felons, but the Social Security Administration had put into place an automated system that withheld payments and suspended benefits of anyone whose name matched those in a number of databases of outstanding warrants."

• Despite Wikis and Other Web 2.0 Tools, Government Collaboration Is Still Slow to Catch On
  Government Technology - August 27, 2009
  "When government officials discuss collaboration's benefits, seldom does the "everyone hold hands and sing Kumbaya" approach work. Historically collaboration has been stymied by one-size-fits-all approaches that fail to recognize each organization's needs and perspectives."

• Documents. With Class.
  Infonomics - July/August 2009
  "Document classification is a key part of any data capture strategy. However, it can also be used in advance of rolling out your entire capture strategy."

• Experts debate expansion of president's cybersecurity powers
  Federal Computer Week - September 1, 2009
  "Existing laws already give the president broad discretion on how to respond to cyberattacks, despite language in a Senate bill that proposes giving the president specific powers during such events, according to experts."

• Identity theft 101: what is non-financial identity fraud?
  Washington Examiner - August 6, 2009
  "Non-financial identity fraud is distinguished from financial identity fraud because the identity theft crime does not involve obtaining money or credit from an existing or new financial account."

• Online tool sheds sunlight on court records
  NextGov - August 19, 2009
  "A group of academics have unveiled an online tool to make federal courts transparent by providing free public access to court records -- and they are encouraging the White House to help with the effort."

• The Power Of Automated Categorization Technology: How To Handle Information That Is Here Today, Here Tomorrow
  Metropolitan Corporate Counsel - September 1, 2009
  "Over the last five years, the distinction between records and knowledge management, information access, legal and compliance systems has blurred. Whereas each was once a separate IT system, they are no longer the sole domain of one department as the business drivers behind each system become more and more interconnected."

• Privacy Advocates Push for New Legislation
  New York Times - September 1, 2009
  "Privacy advocates, with their best chance in years to get new legislation limiting Internet targeting passed in Washington, are skipping their summer vacation this year."

• Privacy Office approves laptop searches without suspicion at U.S. borders
  ComputerWorld - August 31, 2009
  "Travelers arriving at U.S. borders may soon be confronted with their laptops, PDAs, and other digital devices being searched, copied and even held by customs agents -- all without need to show suspicion for cause."

• Spoliation Leads to Severe Sanctions
  LAW.COM - August 28, 2009
  "Given the sheer number of cases that now involve large amounts of ESI, the escalating trend of asserting and defending claims of spoliation should come as no surprise."

• Technology ownership, data privacy control critical aspects of EMR adoption
  Orthopedics Today - September 1, 2009
  "While many hospitals and physicians are now exploring the features and functionality of electronic medical record (EMR) systems more intently, those versed in the pros and cons of EMR adoption recommend that those looking into these systems consider the equally important issues of privacy, ownership and control of EMR data."

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